Some People : )

Today..is Thursday..things here have been going well! I am loving Mali, thus far! It is staying quite warm, but not unbearable! God is already working on my heart. I am having to learn to be flexible(which those of you who knew my day, knew that being flexibile was not ever an issue) so I am learning a lot! I am also learning to trust the guys on my team to lead me. God blessed the team with some amazing guys, who are really looking out for our best interests! I do love the guys, and know that God will continue to bless our team! Thanks for your prayers...please feel free to email me at

hhampton3669@graceu.edu

I would appreciate any emails...I will try to reply as quickly as possible..send any questions my way:) I am quite excited, because tomorrow I get to go and visit an orphanage! Anyway, here are some observations I made about some of the people I have seen in Mali.

People tend to relate to one another in such a way that resembles a family. Human interaction in public is necessary. It seems as though most genuinely care about one another, so when they meet, they greet each other with a long stream of questions and concerns. Interaction between the young and the old is not noticeably different, although is seems that the younger generation is not usually around the older generation.
There has been a lack of couples in public. I am curious to know whether or not it is inappropriate for Malians to show affection in public places. I did see one younger couple holding hands, but I have made no other observations. I did see several Malians wearing wedding rings, but rarely saw anything that looked like husband/wife couples together. I did not ever observe any mixed-race couples.
In response to the way that I have had to make adaptations, I would say that I have had to change the way that I tend to look people in the eyes and smile. I have that I have to be quite careful when I do that, and that I should not look men in the eyes.